🚀 go-pugleaf

The code is shown below. Tried it with GCC 2.6.3 on Sun and with
2.7.2 on Linux where it fails (as shown in the comment).

All three of my MS-DOS compilers have no problem with code with
USE_ARRAY defined.

Why does GCC fail if the return value is accessed directly via
member selection (if the struct member is an array in this case)?

/*
If USE_ARRAY is defined, gcc emits:

		gcc -DUSE_ARRAY    struct-members.c   -o struct-members
		struct-members.c: In function `main':
		struct-members.c:56: invalid use of non-lvalue array

There's no problem if the structure member is a pointer to char.
*/

#include <stdio.h>

#ifdef USE_ARRAY
#define S_TYPE		s[81]
#define S_HOW		"an array"
#else
#define S_TYPE		*s
#define S_HOW		"pointer to char"
#endif


typedef struct {
	int i;
	char S_TYPE;
} struct_t;


struct_t func(void)
{
	static struct_t s = { 100, "string as " S_HOW };

	return s;
}


int main(void)
{
	struct_t s;

	s = func();
	printf("%d - %s\n", s.i, s.s);				/* OK */

	printf("%d - %s\n", func().i, func().s);	/* Fails */

	return 0;
}
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